A Holiday Message From TechTalk's Editor

Hi folks,

David Koff here, creator and writer of TechTalk. I wanted to take a moment to say hello, introduce myself and share a few thoughts.

Background

I’ve been working in technology for nearly 30 years, mostly as a Systems Administrator. I’ve had the good fortune to work at places like The J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles and Nike in Oregon (among others), rolling out software and hardware solutions to people across the globe. I couldn’t have dreamed of that kind of work when I was a child playing with my first computer, an Apple II+.

Back then, I just fell in love with the technology and knew it was something special.

It still is, but I left the grind of full time tech work in 2016. The industry is still geared to appeal to people like me: dweebs, geeks, and nerds. That was and continues to be a mistake: tech needs to be easily available to and understandable by everyone. Apple understood that early on. So did David Pogue, a writer over at the New York Times.

I thought he was on to something and decided to follow in his footsteps. I’m glad I did. I’ve now been writing about technology professionally for just under 15 years. I started my publishing career with MacTech Magazine and that lead to opportunities to write for other, online publications like tidBITS, GigaOm, Medium and now here on Substack.

Substack

I started my substack newsletter at the end of April 2019. Nineteen months later and I’ve written a total of thirty-five episodes. That comes to 1.85 articles/month, a pretty good clip considering that (a) this isn’t my full time job, (b) we had our first child in December 2018, and (c) as you might have noticed, we’re in lockdown due a pandemic.

30 of my 35 episodes (about 86%) have been made available for free to both my paid and free subscribers. While that’s unusual for a paid newsletter, I made that investment deliberately because I wanted you all to see the value, over time, of what I was offering.

I hope I have… because I’m now asking my free subscribers who have been around for a while to make an investment. I want you to invest in me. ❤️👍🏼👌

Subscriptions… and Changes

There are 475 people subscribed to this newsletter. Of those, 15 are paid subscribers, or about 3%. The industry average is 10% and I’d like to reach that level myself. So… I’m making a few changes starting today:

1. Free subscribers will now receive access to just 33% of all episodes, not 86%. That’s one in three episodes. I’ll always welcome my free subscribers and commit to making sure that everyone who subscribes get something.

2. My focus now becomes saying “thank you” to my paid subscribers by prioritizing them and the kinds of topics they’d like me to cover. They’ll now receive all the exclusive content that every subscriber has been receiving, previously.

My ask is simple: will you become a subscriber?

For 30 days starting today, I’m offering a special on my yearly subscriptions: this allows you save 20% off the yearly $60 cost… forever. As my normal subscription cost has been priced at $60/year, this new discount will take the cost down to $48 a year or $4 a month. For less than the cost of one latte at Starbucks a month, you can make the choice to help support quality tech journalism and tech research that benefits you directly by saving you valuable time and money.

Please take advantage of this special offer by clicking this button:

I’m keeping the “Founding Member” level of support open at $150.00 for those super fans who want to say thank you for my work by subscribing at a higher level.

A special note to my current paid subscribers: the offer I’ve just made available to my free subscribers ALSO applies to you as well. You’ll be emailed separately about that.

Thanks everyone.

I know times are tough and I know money’s tight, so I appreciate - in advance - everyone’s willingness to help me keep this newsletter funded and moving forward. If what you’ve read has saved you time, money, or BOTH, I hope you’ll say thank you by becoming a subscriber.

Happy Holidays. Stay safe and SANE out there.